


The Best Mistake

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Brother Drama, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, M/M, miscommunications
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-08 00:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7735933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas has been emailing, texting, communicating with an amazing guy.  Every way but any that would actually let them see each other.  Just when it's starting to get weird, his online boyfriend suggests they meet up for a date.</p><p>It probably could have gone worse, but you'd have to really work at it.</p><p>Major character death warning: happens before the plot begins but very important to the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best Mistake

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt from @otpprompts. http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/148179648538/person-a-has-been-chatting-and-emailing-with
> 
> Person A has been chatting and emailing with someone they’ve met on the internet. And though it may sound weird, they have not exchanged photos or Skyped, so person A has no idea what this person looks like, and likewise the other way around.  
> Person A has fallen in love with this person and is excited when the person asks for a date. Photos have still not been exchanged. A has gotten a (vague) description. Tall, handsome, pretty, etc. But the person will have something recognizable, like holding a flower or wearing some sort of hat.  
> The meeting is at a bar and A waits there. Various people come and go. Until person B comes in who fits the vague description and happens to have the flower/hat/whatever. A gets excited and immediately drags B into a date.  
> But what A doesn’t know, is that B is not the person behind the emails. It’s coincidence they match the description. But B doesn’t mind suddenly being flirted with by A, who looks very cute.  
> How will they find out this is all a big misunderstanding?  
> Bonus: Person C is the one behind the emails, who’s good friends with A and got a crush on them. Afraid to ruin the friendship, they started with the emails, but then finally wanted to tell the truth.
> 
> So of course, instead of a cute fluffy misunderstanding... I just had to take it in the absolute opposite direction.

Castiel couldn’t help being nervous. BookCardinal was a great guy online, but online, Castiel could pass himself off as a normal guy with social skills. So he wasn’t entirely sure what was going to happen on this date. His hopes were probably ridiculously high, that BookCardinal loved him as much as he loved BookCardinal just from their online conversations.

He was an hour early, but already, he was keeping a very close eye on the entrance. Tall, wearing jeans, boots, and a flannel shirt, black wristband. That’s what he was looking for, and that’s what just walked through the door. The man was handsome, and seemed to be looking around. Cas got to his feet and started over. “Hey. My name’s Cas.”

 

An hour later, Cas was slightly confused. Dean didn’t catch a lot of the references Cas made to earlier conversations. But other than that, Dean was amazing. He didn’t think anything could ruin this night for him, but then, he saw Sam practically running out of the bar. “Excuse me. I just spotted a friend of mine leaving, and he looked really distraught. I need to go check on him.” Cas regretted leaving Dean, but there was no reason good enough to ignore Sam looking like that.

He caught up to Sam, sitting in the alley with his head resting on his knees. “Sam?”

Sam didn’t look up. “Shouldn’t you be inside with Dean?”

“You know Dean?” Cas carefully lowered himself to sit beside Sam.

Sam laughed, letting his head bang against the wall behind him. “Yeah. You could say that. He’s my brother.”

“Your brother? The one who took off and abandoned you?” When he’d first met Sam, the kid was a wreck after losing his brother. Cas had always hated that brother. He couldn’t reconcile the asshole who would abandon Sam with the awesome guy he’d left inside, but he figured Sam would know.

“Yeah. That brother.” Sam huffed. “Only one I ever had, you know?”

“Any idea what he’s doing back in town?”

“Well, I told him Dad died and the date of the funeral, I imagine he came to pay his respects.” Sam held up his left arm, where he was wearing a black leather wristband. “Dad gave us these and made us promise to wear them when he died.”

Castiel took Sam’s arm, brain racing. Tall. Flannel and jeans and boots. Black wristband. “I was supposed to be meeting you here, wasn’t I.”

“Yeah. So of course Dean picks this bar to walk into when he decides to come to town.”

“Sammy?” Dean stood at the end of the alley. “I thought I heard your voice back here…”

Sam got to his feet, seething. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, showing up and calling me Sammy after all this time. Four years, Dean?”

“It wasn’t my choice, Sammy. Dad…” Dean turned away, ran a hand over his face. “Remember the night after graduation?”

“Was I supposed to be able to forget? Because I couldn’t. I can’t!”

“Dad caught us.”

The color went out of Sam’s face. “He never said anything to me…”

“No, he didn’t. Because I woke up first, so I got to deal with him first.” Dean came a few steps closer and lowered his voice. “I took all the blame. Even said I’d forced you into it.”

Sam scoffed. “Yeah. Because anyone who knew you would ever believe you’d do that to anyone, let alone to me.”

Dean shrugged. “Dad believed it. Just goes to show how little he knew either of us by then, but he did. Told me if he ever saw me again, ever caught me in the same state as you again, he’d kill me. Gave me five hundred dollars cash and told me to take the Impala and get the hell out.”

Sam took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest. “And you took it and ran.”

Dean nodded. “I had to. Because as much as he hated me right then, we both know I was always the favorite. I didn’t want him even starting to wonder if I’d sacked up and lied to him, because he’d probably have killed you.”

“And now you’re here… for what?” Sam kept his defensive posture, but there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“I came to go to Dad’s funeral. I was hoping to talk to you alone, get a chance to tell you what happened, but I don’t expect you to forgive me or even stay in contact. And from what I heard, I spent the evening flirting with your crush? Yeah. I’m sorry, Sam. I didn’t know. Cas, it was awesome meeting you, but I think I’ve hurt Sam more than enough for one lifetime. So I’m gonna go back to my motel now.” Dean left, walking slowly but steadily away again.

Cas thought Sam might try to stop him, but he didn’t. He just leaned against the wall and sank back down to the ground, crying now. Castiel moved to sit beside him, hesitantly reaching out to touch his arm. Sam leaned into Cas, clinging to him as the tears flowed.

Eventually, Sam ran out of tears. He sat up. “I’m sorry, Cas. You shouldn’t… you shouldn’t have had to see that.”

“See what? You getting emotional about your dad being dead and your brother showing up again with an excuse for why he left that no one can prove or disprove now? You know there’s no way I’m leaving you to deal with this alone.”

“You don’t know Dean. The only way he’d have left me like that is if he felt he had no other choice, and he’s right, Dad probably would have killed me if he knew I was equally responsible.” Sam wiped the tears away. “It’s easier to believe than Dean just abandoning me like Dad said he did.”

“What happened that your dad would get so mad about?”

Sam shook his head. “You don’t want to know. Trust me.”

Cas couldn’t imagine anything Sam could say that he wouldn’t want to hear. “Maybe not, but it would help me understand why you’re forgiving Dean so easily.”

“Well, for one thing, you’ve met the guy. He’s a total charmer. How could you not like him?”

“In my defense, I thought he was you." Cas blinked. "Um. You know what I mean. I thought he was the guy I’ve fallen in love with online.”

Finally, Sam looked up. Finally something pierced through the devastation. “You… you fell in love with me?”

“Yes. I didn’t realize it was you, though.”

Sam snorted a little. “I got that. I sent you the email from my old account because… I was scared to mess up our friendship. You have no idea how much you’ve meant to me these last few years. And I fell in love with you, too.”

Castiel smiled and started stroking Sam’s hair. “So will you tell me what happened?”

It took a few minutes, and Cas had just about given up when Sam started. “I’ve told you how Dean and I were raised by a paranoid recluse, pretty much isolated? Home-schooled, after Mom died I didn’t leave the house again until I was fourteen and my brother finally had his own car and could take me for drives?”

“Yeah. Which is why it hurt so bad when Dean abandoned you, he and your dad were all you’d ever known.”

“We kind of figured the two of us were all we’d ever really have. I went through the motions of applying to college, but I never thought Dad would actually let me go. He didn’t let Dean. So if Dean was all I’d ever have…”

Castiel thought he was getting where this was going. And he understood why Sam was so reluctant to share the story. “Why wait until you’d graduated high school?”

“That’s when Dean got his car. That’s when Dad started letting him leave the house. We figured that meant Dean was an adult, because he’d finished high school. So we decided to wait until I was an adult, too. We knew we’d have to hide it from Dad, but we didn’t think that would be hard… Dean could drive us out to the country or something. Maybe we could even go on trips that lasted a few days. Graduation night, Dean got us a fancy hotel room. I guess Dad traced us there, but I didn’t know. And Dad was big on dealing with problems by locking them away and never actually talking about them, so he must have figured I was handling it the way he’d taught me so he didn’t have to ask me about it. Which… I was, just not handling what he thought I was handling.”

“And afterwards, Dean abandoned you without a word. No wonder you were so distraught by it.”

“It wasn’t Dean’s fault. None of it was. Sure, he was older, but I was old enough to know what I was doing and do it because I wanted to, not because Dean made me. And now…” Sam laughed. “Now I have to go to Dad’s funeral tomorrow, and get up in front of the four other people who show up, and say good things about the man who ruined my life because you don’t speak ill of the dead at their own funeral.”

Cas rubbed Sam's back. “What happens after the funeral? Are you going to try to reconnect with your brother?”

“Screw after the funeral. If you weren’t here with me, I’d be chasing him to his motel room. Now things are a lot more complicated, because I don’t want to lose you, but…” Sam sniffled a little, but no more tears were coming.

“They don’t have to be complicated.”

“No, they don’t. But they are. Because…” Sam trailed off again. 

“You’re still in love with him.”

“Yeah. It’s twisted and seven kinds of messed up, but that pretty much defines my life before college, and I can't just shut it off.”

Castiel smiled. Sam was certainly right about that. “But you love me.”

“Yes. And that one there’s nothing messed up about. Especially now that you know pretty much the last part of my life I was keeping secret from you. Which should make it easy to choose, wouldn't you think?”

Should make it easy, but clearly, it wasn't. “Let’s go find Dean. Together. See how he feels. If he makes you choose, we can deal with it then, but I can share. Seems to run in my family.”

“With my brother?”

Cas shrugged. “Wouldn’t have been my choice, but I’ll believe you when you say it was consensual. And like you said, your childhood was severely screwed up.”

“Huh. Okay.” Sam got to his feet with Cas’s help. “You’re sure about this?”

“Yes.”

“What about you and Dean? You were getting along well…”

Good question. He did like Dean, and the brother of Sam's that Cas had hated didn't exist. “If it happens, and you’re okay with it, good.”

“Never thought I’d be sharing someone with my brother, but… if I’m gonna share, you and Dean are the only people I can imagine sharing with. Let's go get Dean.”

 

Finding Dean was easier than Cas would have expected. Even after all this time, Sam still knew his brother so well. It didn’t help the nerves when Sam knocked on the door. They couldn’t be sure Dean would open it, and they definitely couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t slam it in their face.

Dean opened it. “Sam?”

“Hey. Can we come in?”

Dean stepped aside, making room. “Why are you here?”

As soon as they were inside and the door was closed, Sam threw his arms around Dean, clinging tightly to his brother. Castiel turned away as Dean hugged back. The moment was too private for him to watch.

“Come home, Dean. Dad’s dead, he can’t hurt either of us anymore. And I miss you so much.”

Dean’s eyes flicked to Castiel briefly. “Sammy, I can’t… I can’t hurt you again.”

“So don’t. Come home. Be my brother again, even if you don’t want to be what we were." Sam let go of Dean. "If you do, though, then let’s talk it out.”

Dean sighed and he looked pointedly at Castiel. “Sam…”

“I told Castiel everything. Including how I still feel the same as I did at graduation.”

Now Dean's face was contorted into a what-the-fuck expression. “And he came here with you?”

“Yeah. See, he’s got this idea. But if you’re willing to try, then it just might work.”

“What, a poly relationship?" Castiel nodded. "Those are tricky, Sam. Way more complicated than two people.”

“And you barely know Cas, but you know me. And I know Cas, and I trust him. Enough to tell him about you. He’s been for me what you couldn’t be the last few years.”

“Look, it’s not…" Dean shook his head. "Cas isn’t the problem. The problem is you and me, we’re Winchesters, and therefore crap at communication. And we gotta be able to communicate if we’re gonna do this. No letting resentments build up because we can’t talk about them.”

Sam laughed, his entire body relaxing. “So… we’ll have to have some chick flick moments.”

“Yeah.”

Sam nodded, overly serious about it. “I can do that. Cas?”

“I think I can manage,” Cas said with equal gravity.

“I’ll give it my best shot." Dean smirked. "The occasional chick-flick moment can’t be worse than taking off tomorrow to never see you again, and that was the original plan.”

“Okay. So you’ll come home?”

Dean was apparently just as helpless when Sam turned on the puppy eyes as Cas was. “Yeah. I'll come home.”

Sam smiled, his first truly happy-looking smile of the night. “Then I’m going outside to say hello to an old friend. Meet you back at the house.”

“An old friend…?” Cas followed Sam curiously. Dean stood in the doorway, watching with a fond smile on his face as Sam went over to an old black car and ran a hand along the trunk.

“That car meant the world to us as kids, and when Dad gave it to me… we never did, obviously, but with a car we could actually dream about going to some of the places we’d learned about. We’d make these crazy plans to load her up and drive to Alabama, or California, or Boston… and then Dad would come up with something that needed doing and we’d scrap them. But the dream was there, until it became a nightmare I had to live through.”

“I’m sorry about your dad.”

Dean shrugged. “He died in the fire that killed Mom, it just took twenty-five years for him to realize it. Dunno if anyone’s expecting me to speak tomorrow, but if they make me, that’s what I’m saying. And he was dead to me when I had to run and leave Sammy behind. For days, I kept thinking I'd turn around, make myself go back, show up in the middle of the night, kidnap my brother. Never had the balls.”

 

As it turned out, Sam had overestimated how many people showed up. It was Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jim Murphy, who was there for Sam more than John. John hadn’t been religious, so there wasn’t much to the funeral.

Sam looked at the hole in the ground. “I don’t know that I ever really got to know my dad. I knew a man who was a shell of the man who couldn’t save his wife from a house fire. It took so much of what he had to keep himself living that I don’t know how much he had left to give his sons. But he tried.”

“Dad died in the fire. It was sheer stubborn that kept anyone from noticing for this long. Bye, Dad.” Dean pulled the black wristband from his wrist and tossed it onto the coffin like a flower. Sam followed suit.

Jim said a quick final prayer, for the survivors left to carry on. Not that Sam or Dean seemed to be having much trouble in that respect. By the time they got to lunch, Sam looked happier than Cas could remember seeing him except after getting a report card. Dean looked ten years younger than the man he'd mistakenly hit on the night before. And Cas... he was praying, too. Prayers of gratitude for the mistake he'd made.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments always welcome!


End file.
